Electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations

ABSTRACT

An electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates is installed in a weight tower of a workout station and includes two vertical columns, joined at the top by a crossbeam and at the bottom by a base, on which there rests a stack of unit weights that can be vertically moved by a steel cable. The tower includes a pulley that deflects the steel cable coming from a lower part of the tower towards a center of the tower, where it is attached to the unit weights. Mounted on either side of a central pulley is a fractional weight pulley having a coupling and a linear actuator for translating a steel cable, which hangs vertically down inside a tube attached to the crossbeam and to the base of the tower, the cylindrical fractional weight being held at the end of the steel cable in the tube.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the National Stage entry of international application No. PCT/BR2010/000133, filed Apr. 20, 2010, and claims the priority of Brazil Application No. PI0901360-1, filed Apr. 22, 2009, the entire specifications, claims and drawings of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention is directed to an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations and, more specifically, to a shaft having pulleys mounted on bearings fixed on the weight tower of the workout station to act in conjunction with a set of fractional weight lifting plates, which, together with the unit weights, make up the total amount of weight selected by a user of the workout station.

2. Introduction

As persons skilled in the art are aware, weight towers of workout stations have various unit weights stacked, which may, in whole or in part, be lifted inside the towers by central vertical steel cables, which, in turn, are driven by active members of the workout station driven by the user. Selecting the weights to lift may be obtained by inserting a horizontal pin, which crosses through a hole existing in each weight in correspondence with a sequence of holes of an ear that extends to below the lower weight and attaches at the top to a steel cable. A weight selected by the pin lifts all the weights above it as well.

The most modern towers have electromechanical systems for selecting the weights, commanded by a panel fixed to the workout station.

Many conventional towers have unit weights each weighing ten kilos and extra pins for coupling, in a guide parallel to that of the unit weights, of extra fractional loads, normally weighing five kilograms and two and a half kilograms.

It is therefore one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations which enables the motorized selection of the fractional weight lifting plates in unit weight towers.

SUMMARY

The objectives and advantages of the present invention are achieved by way of a electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations, to be installed in a weight tower of the workout station, of the kind comprised by two vertical columns joined at the top by a crossbeam and at the bottom by a base, on which there rests a stack of unit weights that can be vertically moved by a steel cable, sliding in vertical guides mounted between the crossbeam and the base. At or toward the top of this tower there is a pulley that deflects the steel cable coming from the lower part of the tower towards the center of the tower, where it is fixed to the unit weights.

According to aspects of the present invention, the mechanism is comprised by of the pulley mounted in the center of a shaft that is kept suspended and parallel to the crossbeam by a pair of bearings attached to the crossbeam of the tower. On this shaft may be mounted, on either side of the pulley, another pulley provided with a coupling in the side section, housable in a coupling of an adjacent disk, lengthwise and slidingly mounted on the shaft, and conducted by a rod which is propelled axially by the cursor of a linear actuator. Fastened to each pulley is a steel cable, which passes through the tower, by a deflection pulley, hanging vertically down inside a tube attached to the crossbeam and to the base of the tower, the cylindrical fractional weight being held at the end.

It is understood that other aspects of the invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein various aspects of the present invention are shown and described by way of illustration only. As will be understood, the present invention is capable of other and different variations and its several details are capable of modification in various other respects, all without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various example implementations consistent with aspects of the invention, and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles thereof:

FIG. 1 depicts a front raised view of a tower having an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates, in accordance with some aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 1, depicting of a tower having an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates, in accordance with some aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a long cross-sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 2, depicting an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates, passing through the shaft of the pulley of the top of the tower, in accordance with some aspects of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the top of the tower taken along line C-C of FIG. 1, crosswise to the shaft of the pulley, in accordance with some aspects of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in the figures, an electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in workout stations may include weight towers comprised of two vertical columns 1 joined at the top by a crossbeam 2 and at the bottom by a base 3 supporting said columns 1. A rectangular space is formed between the columns 1, crossbeam 2 and base 3 where a plurality of unit weights 4 may be positioned in a stacked fashion, for example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The unit weights 4 may have vertical holes that are crossed by vertical guides 5 mounted between the crossbeam 2 and the base 3, as shown in FIG. 1.

Above the uppermost unit weight 4 there is a coupling plaque 40, with a vertical bar 6 that crosses through all the unit weights 4 by corresponding central holes therein, the plaque 40 being attached to the end of a steel cable 7 which lifts the unit weights 4.

The electromechanical mechanism promotes the coupling between the vertical bar 6 and one of the unit weights 4, duly selected. The steel cable 7 then lifts, by way of the bar 6, the selected weight 4 plus all the weights above it.

An aspect of the present invention includes adding to the unit weights 4 fractional weight lifting plates, such as to provide equivalents to one half, or to one half plus one fourth of a unit weight, with an electromechanical selector for selective coupling.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the electromechanical selector for fractional weight lifting plates consists of using a central pulley 8 positioned at the top of the tower for deflecting downwards, in the center of the tower, the steel cable 7 coming from the bar 6, toward a deflecting pulley 10, which leads the cable 7 horizontally, for example, to the workout station, as schematically represented by an arrow in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the pulley 8 may be mounted on a tubular shaft 11. The shaft 11 may be rotatably mounted on bushings 12 of bearings 13, which may be attached to the crossbeam 2 of the tower. The tubular shaft 11 extends outwardly of the bushings 12 and receives, on either side of the bearings 13, the bushings 14 of two fractional weight pulleys 15, which have channels for steel cables 16 having small gauge or belt.

Each fractional weight pulley 15 has a rotary coupling 17, opposite an analogous coupling 18, of a disk 19 mounted coaxially and slidingly on the shaft 11. At each end of the shaft 11, a cylindrical rod 20 is housed internally. A radial pin 21 may be mounted toward the internal, distal end of the cylindrical rod 20, which perpendicularly crosses oblong holes 22 provided on opposite walls of the shaft 11, so as to enable the coupling of the pin 21 on the respective disk 19. The end opposite the distal end of the rod 20 extends from a hole of the shaft 11 and connects to a cursor 23 of a linear actuator 24, by way of a rotary joint 25, each actuator 24 being attached to the crossbeam 2 of the tower. As described above, the shaft 11 has a rod 20 at each end and linear actuators 24, one for each rod 20.

As shown in FIG. 3, at one of the ends of the shaft 11 there is also provided axially a disk 26 with perforations on the periphery, the disk disposed with its edge accommodated in two optical sensors 27.

These two optical sensors 27 are located near each other and at a distance less than or equal to the distance between the perforations of the disk 26 such that a CPU of the command panel recognizes the direction in which the disk 26 is turning, besides counting the amount of holes in a lifting or lowering operation of the weights.

FIG. 4 illustrates how each fractional weight pulley 15 has the steel cable 16 (or belt) attached at a point toward the bottom of the channel, where a terminal 28 is housed, the steel cable 16 extending behind the tower where it deflects downwards, for example, vertically when passing by a deflection pulley 29.

At the crossbeam 2 and at the base 3 of the tower are fixed two vertical tubes 30, which receive, vertically and slidingly, two cylindrical weights, such as a first weight 31 weighing five kilograms and a second weight 32 weighing two and a half kilograms, for example. Each weight 31 and 32 is suspended by the steel cables 16 in the tubes 30, the steel cables 16 connecting to the weights 31 and 32 substantially at their centers.

The tubes 30 are closed at the lower ends, and may contain rubber pads 33 below the weights 31 and 32 to buffer the shock of any of the weights 31 or 32 that freefall due to rupture of the respective cable 16. Closed at the bottom, the tubes also help buffer the freefall by partial air compression with the weight acting as a piston. The weights 31 and 32 are hung by the respective steel cables 16, without touching the bottom of the tubes 30, keeping these cables driven, which will always keep their pulleys 15 in the same position when not operated.

To raise one or two fractional weight lifting plates 31 and 32, in conjunction with the selected unit weights 4 of the tower, the electronic command panel drives one or both of the linear actuators 24. The actuator 24 pushes the rod 20 axially into the shaft 11, which, by means of its pin 21, conducts the disk 19 towards the pulley 15, joining the couplings 17 and 18, such that the pulley 15 thereafter turns in conjunction with the shaft 11. The pulley 15 thus winds the cable 16, suspending the weight 31 or 32, or both. When the unit weight 4 of the tower weighs 10 kilograms, for example, fractional weight lifting plates weighing five kilograms and two and a half kilograms may be used, such that selective operations of the two linear actuators 24 may fill the interval between 10 kilogram weights in four equal intervals.

The disk 26 and the optical sensors 27 read the angular movement of the pulley 8, which is related to the linear movement of the steel cable 7 and, therefore, to the displacement of the unit weights 4. The displacement data, for example, may be relayed to the electronic panel of the workout station, which interprets the displacement data and the weight data provided by an appropriate sensor of the selection system and displays the energy expended in the exercise on the panel screen.

While the present invention has been described in connection with preferred aspects, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that variations and modifications of the preferred aspects described above may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Other aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the specification or from a practice of the invention disclosed herein. 

1. An electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates in a weight tower of the workout station, the mechanism comprising: two vertical columns joined at the top by a crossbeam and at the bottom by a base; a stack of unit weights supported by the vertical columns that can be vertically moved by a steel cable by sliding in vertical guides mounted between the crossbeam and the base; a pulley supported by the crossbeam that deflects the steel cable coming from a lower part of the tower towards a center of the tower, where it is attached to the unit weights; wherein the pulley that deflects the steel cable is mounted in the center of a shaft; the shaft being kept suspended and parallel to the crossbeam by a pair of bearings attached to the crossbeam of the tower; wherein a fractional weight pulley is mounted on the shaft on either side of the pulley, a the fractional weight pulley being provided with a coupling in a side section, housable in a coupling of an adjacent disk, the adjacent disk coaxially and slidingly mounted on the shaft wherein the adjacent disk is conducted by a rod which is propelled axially by a cursor of a linear actuator; and wherein being fastened to each pulley is a fractional weight steel cable, which passes through the tower by a deflection pulley and hangs vertically inside a tube attached to the crossbeam and to the base of the tower, a cylindrical fractional weight being held at the end fractional weight steel cable in the tube.
 2. The electomechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to claim 1, wherein the pulley that deflects the steel cable is tubular and mounted by bushings on the bearings attached to the crossbeam of the tower.
 3. The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to claim 2, wherein the shaft projects outwardly from the bearings where it receives, on either side, a the fractional weight pulley mounted thereon by a fractional pulley bearing; and wherein the disk is conducted by a rod, which is configured with a radial pin that passes through a hole of the shaft, the rod being propelled axially by the cursor of a linear actuator via a rotary joint.
 4. The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to claim 1, wherein the tube has a closed base, is configure to provide a minimal internal clearance with the fractional weight and have a rubber pad at the closed base.
 5. The electromechanical mechanism for controlling fractional weight lifting plates according to claim 1, wherein a tip of the shaft has a perforated disk, the with perforations being at a periphery of the perforated disk, wherein the periphery of the perforated disk is accommodated in two optical sensors, the distance between the two optical sensors less than or equal to the distance between the perforations at the periphery of the perforated, and wherein the two optical sensors count the perforations when the disk turns while also enabling an electronic system to interpret a turning direction of the perforated disk. 